I have to admit that I have mixed feelings when I read that opera stars won’t go to Japan. It’s easy to say they are overreacting. But Japanese officials haven’t been honest about radiation and it may not take much to ruin a major career. Opera singers – who makes some unbelievable facial expressions when performing, as you can see below –have to be notoriously protective of their voices.

Well, decide for yourself.

And enjoy some of the good news this week.

ITEM: Radiation fears cause star singers, like tenor Jonas Kaufmann (below top) and soprano Anna Netrebko (below bottom), to back out of the Metropolitan Opera’s tour to Japan, which begins its performances today:

I’ve seen a lot of changes and still love that venerable group. I go back to when Sir Neville Marriner founded and conducted it 50 years ago and rose to international fame as a conductor of full-size symphony orchestras, not just chamber orchestras.

Why not? I say. After all, the formula works and helps the cause of classical music. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, superstar with conductor Gustavo Dudamel, did it this year.

(In fact, tomorrow, on Sunday, June 5, at 4 p.m., the LA Phil and Dudamel – below — conclude their three-concert HD season with an all-Brahms concert – featuring the Fourth Symphony and Double Concerto for violin and cello – which will be screened at the Point and Eastgate cinemas.).

ITEM: What do would-be opera stars look like when auditioning for the Metropolitan Opera? Prize-winning and pioneering photographer Lee Friedlander (below), who has done a lot of portraits of musicians and whose son is a professional jazz bassist, takes a look and gets striking results not unlike the PBS promotional ad that shows some guy singing an opera aria in a photo booth and making a flipbook out of the images as he lip-synchs to a Caruso recording: